Fields of Expertise

Areas of Interest

Biography

Mike Ryan is a Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University and an Emeritus Research Ecologist for the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins, Colorado. His research focuses on whole tree physiology, including the role of respiration in regulating productivity, tree carbon balance, mechanism of size-related productivity and water use decline, mechanisms of drought tolerance and mortality, carbon allocation, and the role of source versus sink control of plant carbon balance. He has studied other aspects of the forest carbon cycle including changes in forest carbon with disturbance and recovery, the effects of global change, ecosystem respiration, soil carbon and nitrogen interactions, decomposition of soil carbon, and coordination of carbon, water, and nutrient cycles. Mike serves as an editor for Tree Physiology, and is on the editorial review boards of Plant, Cell and Environment and New Phytologist.
Publications are available at: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~mryan/publications.htm